March 22nd, 2026 - "Wilderness Survival Guide: Sabbath" - Rev. Dr. Michelle Morris

Matt Nelson: Welcome to the sermon podcast from First United Methodist

Church in downtown Bentonville.

If you have questions related to what you hear today or just want to find

out more about the ministries of First United Methodist Church, please visit us

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Rev. Dr. Michelle Morris: And that was worth it for the amens.

Welcome to First United Methodist Church.

My name is Michelle Morris.

I'm the lead pastor here, and we are in our series in which we are learning

about spiritual practices, and today's spiritual practice will be Sabbath.

So to help us get in that spirit, let's hear now from Psalm 23.

"The Lord is my shepherd.

I lack nothing.

He lets me rest in grassy meadows.

He leads me to restful waters.

He keeps me alive.

He guides me in proper paths for the sake of his good name.

Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no

danger because you are with me.

Your rod and your staff, they protect me.

You set a table for me right in front of my enemies.

You bathe my head in oil.

My cup is so full it spills over.

Yes, goodness and faithful love will pursue me all the days of my life,

and I will live in the Lord's house as long as I live." This is the

word of God for the people of God.

Thanks be to God.

Thanks be to God.

Let us pray.

Lord, open our hearts, our minds, and our eyes that we may see and know

the word you have for us this day.

In your holy name we pray.

Amen.

Little brothers have a way of keeping you honest.

As I share this story, there's a couple of things you need to know.

First of all, High Point University is a Methodist university.

That's right.

Which means last night those of us that lived in Northwest Arkansas couldn't lose.

So High Point's a Methodist university.

And you also need to know that in my family of origin, we refer to

the Razorbacks as the Piggies, okay?

So I got very excited about the game last night and sent this text to my brother.

"This Methodist versus Piggies game is very exciting." To which he responded,

"High Point has the biggest NIL budget in college basketball, so they can

buy good players." I said, "Oh, dang.

So rich Methodists then."

He said, "Yeah, and religious loopholes for donations." I said, "I mean, I

feel like I can't throw stones there."

He said, "It's cool, though. The church probably doesn't need that

money to feed hungry people or anything." "Good game. Enjoy."

Yeah.

Well, big sisters also keep little brothers honest, and I will tell

you that they don't actually have the highest NIL budget.

They have the highest for their division, but the Razorbacks have way

more money to work with than they do.

Okay, so that cleared up, though.

I do think that that text exchange does illustrate a good point, which

is this very real tension, and it's a very real tension that we

actually have encoded on our money by writing, "In God we trust," on it.

Really?

Really do we trust God or do we trust this piece of paper?

That tension illustrates for us that those words, "In God we trust," printed

on our money are at the very least ironic, and at the worst, idolatrous.

Because who do we trust?

God or money?

I think as a culture, we trust money, and I think our proof is

in the fact that we don't Sabbath

Because Sabbath is an act of trust

Sabbath is saying that we trust God to provide, that we trust

that if we rest, the world won't fall apart and God's got us.

But that's not how we usually act

Let's remember a little bit about Sabbath.

Let's remember the gift that it was.

Sabbath comes to us as the Hebrew people have fled from Pharaoh, crossed on the

other side of the Sea of Reeds, and they are given three things immediately: water,

manna or food from heaven, and the Sabbath

Because they are told that on the sixth day they should collect

twice, and then what they collect will hold them for the seventh day

when they are supposed to rest.

Can you imagine a people who have been enslaved for hundreds of years, who have

not had a day off in hundreds of years, the first thing that God does is provides

what they need and gives them a day off

It is a sign and a symbol of that loving provision of our Lord and a

sign and a symbol of who God expects us to be if we are God's people.

The Sabbath is so deeply important to God that it is in the Ten Commandments.

It's the only spiritual practice that we will engage in in the

course of this series that is in the Ten Commandments and called for.

And it is talked about, depending on whether you read it in Exodus or you read

it in Deuteronomy, is given different reasons for why we honor the Sabbath.

One is because God rested on the seventh day, and as the people who are created

in the image of God, the very least we could do is rest as God rested.

But it's also talked about as you were an enslaved people, and you

are set free now, and a mark of your freedom is that you get to rest a day.

It's a mark of who you are as God's people.

And God created us as bodies that need rest.

If we don't rest, we suffer physically.

745,000 people die a year from conditions that are basically due to lack of rest

And there's a, a myriad of other physical ailments that come about because we don't

rest because we are created to need it

But Sabbath does more than just that.

Sabbath also builds in time for community, time to be with each other.

Some of us have been alive long enough to remember the blue

laws still being in effect when everything was closed on Sunday.

And what did you do after church?

You went to a relative's house, and you had dinner together, right?

And you gathered around the table, and I will tell you they've done study after

study after study to say that's part of the reason that we're degrading as

a society is because we've forgotten how to sit around a table with a bunch

of people of all kinds of generations and had conversation and argued with

each other and still loved each other.

Sabbath gave us that time and that space to gather and be family

And Sabbath also demands that we recognize the collective giftedness of the people.

To recognize that we as individuals are not all that and a bag of chips.

To be honest, there are other people that can do the work that we do, and

when we trust in each other, then we can hand that off and share the load, and

each take time for rest and restoration

But we don't do these things, and that has made Sabbath not just a

spiritual need, but a spiritual crisis.

That's where we are now.

We're in a spiritual crisis.

We have effectively gone back to work for Pharaoh

That's where we are.

And in some ways, that stress, that pressure, that fear, that lack of trust

is creating such anxiety in us that we have even forgotten how to sleep.

We can't get our regularly scheduled rest anymore.

50 to 70 million of us in this country have chronic sleep disorders.

35% of adults get less than seven hours of sleep a night, and 12%

of us have chronic insomnia.

That's roughly, if you stretch it across the pews, that's one in every line of pews

And that doesn't even count.

Now, that's just sleep.

Now let's talk about the professions that tend to work seven days a week.

First, there are the vulnerable and the poor among us who, in order to

keep the lights on and groceries on the table, have to work seven days

a week, have to work multiple jobs.

The statistic to back that up is that gig workers, 25 to 35%

of those work seven days a week.

But there are other professions, some that realistically have to work

seven days a week, but some, if we were doing a better job of sharing

the load, wouldn't be the case.

Agriculture is a case where you probably have to work seven days a week.

As my dad said, "The cows don't know you get a day off. You still

have to milk the cows." Right?

But medical and emergency services, so many people working in the

medical field will work 10, 12 days in a row without a day off

And then one of the worst offenders is clergy

And I have been one of them

for most of my career as a clergy

Which makes me a hypocrite to stand up here and tell us we should take Sabbath.

And raises the question, how can I possibly lead us through this

spiritual crisis if that's the case?

Well, ironically, I actually found a pattern to help lead through

this spiritual crisis in the way that I lead you all through giving.

And I, you know, I get the, I get the irony of it, but I'm gonna

use that same pattern and I'm gonna show you that same pattern

So first, one of the things that I do is I always lead by example.

It's been my practice to, when we do a giving campaign, that I

share with you what I've given.

I forgot to do that this year, so we're gonna play a little bit of catch-up.

So I sat down and figured out, and my giving plan for this next year, I

have 12.5% of my total package, uh, my total, um, compensation here, is

designated as giving to the church.

And I do that before taxes.

In my case, I give to God before I give to Caesar.

Everybody figures this differently.

We'll cover that in a minute now.

But I do give to God before I give to Caesar.

So prior to taxes, I give 12.5% to the church.

Unless you take out the expenses, 'cause I also designate part

of my salary to expenses.

So if you take that out, then 14% of my salary goes to the church.

Unless you count the expenses as also a gift to the church, which it

doesn't count that way for taxes.

But if you count that way as that being a gift to the church, then I give

23% of my package back to the church.

That's where I am.

I always want you to know where I am as your spiritual leader, because if I'm

gonna stand up here and ask you to give, I want you to know what I am giving.

So I should do the same with the Sabbath, right?

I should do the same.

So I'm gonna have to honor the Sabbath.

I can no longer stand before you as your spiritual leader and

ignore the third commandment.

We don't even get to murder before we get to Sabbath.

I gotta get this under control, so I'm gonna have to honor it.

And I will tell you that I've been practicing it during Lent.

I, I blocked my calendar on Fridays, except for the Friday that I went with

the confirmation class to Little Rock, and then that week, I blocked Thursday.

I block my calendar, and I'm not here on Friday.

And I will tell you that I am a better pastor, that what it does is allows me

that rest, that restoration that I need.

I come back refreshed, creative, restored.

And I will tell you from my time practicing this, that what happens to

me on Friday is I keep getting these work ideas, and I keep going, "No, no,

it's Friday. I can't think about work today." And then Saturday rolls around.

I'm like, "I get to work today." So exciting.

So it's been good.

God's wise about these things.

Who knew?

So I'm gonna continue that.

My Fridays will be blocked, except if there's an exceptional

situation like Good Friday.

My Fridays will be blocked.

And what we can do is remember that I have Pastor Ray, who can be the pastor

around here on Fridays, or if he's out of town for some reason, we have Sarah

Brainbridge, we have Don Hall, we have amazing laity who do congregational care.

So unless your ox is in a ditch, that's, that's, that's the marker, right?

If your ox is in a ditch and I'm the only one that can help

you get it out of the ditch

I'm not gonna be available that day.

That's all there is to it.

I have to do this.

Because the next thing I'm gonna do is encourage you to find

ways to honor Sabbath, just like I encourage you to give.

And when we talk about giving, some of you can tithe, and I challenge

you to tithe or tithe plus.

Some of you are on fixed incomes, and it's getting more and more expensive, and maybe

you even have to cut back on your giving.

That's understandable.

Some of you are learning to give incrementally.

That's your journey.

Great.

So let's think about Sabbath in a similar way.

Some of us can take a day off.

We just don't.

But we have the capacity to.

We could.

So if you can, take a day off

Some of us for various reasons, that's a challenge, or there,

we, we gotta work up to it.

So can you block four hours in your schedule as rest?

And some can't afford that, but you could get your sleep in line again.

And that's why this week's sheet has how to Sabbath, which has some of those tips.

But also on the back it has get your sleep hygiene routine in place.

Because if you could just rest

That would make a huge difference if you could just rest

So this is your encouragement to take the steps that are appropriate to you.

And then the last thing that I can do as your leader is to provide opportunity.

We provide all kinds of opportunities to give, both monetarily and to share the

gifts that you have, and we also tell you to say no if something is not who

you're called to be because when you do, you trust in the giftedness of others.

We provide that.

So we're gonna also make space for rest, and we're gonna do that right now.

So here's what I want you to do.

I want you to get in your mind a memory of a time you were at rest, a

time when you were relaxed, at peace.

Get that memory in your head

And we're, we're gonna take a few breaths, and then I'm gonna read, while

you hold that memory in your head, I'm gonna read a different translation,

one done by Nan Merrill of Psalm 23.

Okay?

So we got the memory.

Let's breathe

Oh, my beloved, you are my shepherd.

I shall not want.

You bring me to green pastures for rest and lead me beside

still waters, renewing my spirit.

You restore my soul

You lead me in the path of goodness to follow love's way.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow and of death, I am not

afraid, for you are ever with me.

Your rod and your staff, they guide me.

They give me strength and comfort.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of all my fears.

You bless me with oil.

My cup overflows.

Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life

And I shall dwell in the heart of the beloved forever.

Amen.

Matt Nelson: Thanks for listening to the sermon podcast from First United

Methodist Church in downtown Bentonville.

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Grace and peace.